Breytenbach Quotes & Sayings

The problems of aging present an opportunity to rethink our social and personal lives in order to ensure the dignity and welfare of each individual. — Daisaku Ikeda

Dangerous because your present Administration and its specialized agencies by all accounts know no restraint in hitting out at any perceived enemy of America, and nobody or nothing can protect one from their vindictiveness. — Breyten Breytenbach

When really writing I'm not a good friend. Because writing disorganizes the social self, you become atomized. It scrambles you, sometimes to the point that I'm incapable of speech. I feel that if I start speaking, I'll lose the writing, like getting off the treadmill. — Tony Kushner

Leaving traces of ourselves, as in creative productivity, could then be seen as part of the definition of consciousness for us as well. We know that in order to progress we must stretch for something just out of reach
if only for a life that will be more compassionate and decent than the cruelty, paranoia, greed, narrow corporatism, or narcissism we mostly indulge in and find such ample justification for. And so we dream. — Breyten Breytenbach

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests. — Breyten Breytenbach

One mustn't allow acting to be like stoc kbroker - you must not take it just as a means of earning a living, to go down every day to do a job of work. The big thing is to combine punctuality, efficiency, good nature, obedience, intelligence, and concentration with an unawareness of what is going to happen next, thus keeping yourself available for excitement. — John Gielgud

While the powers of the Primal Cause lie in causation, it shows itself in process through thoughts, perception and conception. It is the power of the Primal Cause to decipher what is perceived from the ordered plane and conceive judgments through thoughts from the unordered. — Dew Platt

People hurt each other all the time just by being. What matters is that when you hurt someone, you do what you can to make it right. — Amy Lane

It may be an extreme example brought about by abnormal circumstances - but the criteria of human rights kick in, surely, precisely when the conditions are extreme and the situation is abnormal. — Breyten Breytenbach

The story of mankind is the nomadic search for many, many truths along harsh roads bordered with flesh and bones and the apparitions of truths long since eaten by birds; it is looking for truths to fill a grumbling stomach, and spitting them out like pebbles when they have lost their flavor. — Breyten Breytenbach

I think it's an area that one writes from that is curious because it is not a clearly defined partisan one. — Breyten Breytenbach

You ride astride the imaginary in order to hunt down the real. — Breyten Breytenbach

I came, I saw, I was confused. — Breyten Breytenbach

It is a sense you do not possess, and hence I cannot explain it to you," she added condescendingly. "Imagine trying to explain a sense of smell to someone who had none. What sounds like an arbitrary, almost mystic ability is no different from smelling apple blossoms in the dark. — Robin Hobb

Even ivory towers need central heating. — Breyten Breytenbach

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication. — Marlon Brando

I did decide that you have to put your name about a bit, and so, although I would have preferred to have never done publicity or an interview or a fashion shoot for a magazine or a chat show. — Jeremy Northam

I love singing and that's kind of my new thing. — Margaret Cho

An old road always looks richer and more beautiful than a new road because old roads have memories! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

History is a succession of things that ought never to have happened, and the writing act is a kind of revenge against this. — Breyten Breytenbach

In dancing with the enemy one follows his steps even if counting under one's breath. — Breyten Breytenbach

And gradually we will rot like old ships or trees
But keep Pain far from Me o Lord — Breyten Breytenbach

The only thing Jess really cared about were those two children and letting them know they were okay. Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you'd be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved. — Jojo Moyes

Do you know what I believe in, Angelo? I believe in my family. I believe in my father. I believe in Santino and Fabia. And I believe in you. The people I love most in the world. Love is the only thing I believe in. — Amy Harmon

The world, our world, has existed since night of time, yet every day we must recreate it. If we did not walk upon the earth, it would not exist. — Breyten Breytenbach

Americans have mastered the art of living with the unacceptable. — Breyten Breytenbach

After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. — Pope Benedict XVI

The recognition and the acceptance of the Other's humanity (or humanness) is a maiming of self. You have to wound the self, cut it in strips, in order to -know- that you are as similar and of the same substance of shadows. — Breyten Breytenbach

Better still - your history has shown how powerful a moral catharsis expressed through popular resistance to injustice can sometimes be; I have in mind the grassroots opposition to the Vietnam War. — Breyten Breytenbach

It would be a tragic mistake for us out here to imagine that Bush represents the hearts and the minds of the majority of your countrymen. Many of your black and other compatriots must be just as anguished as we are. — Breyten Breytenbach

Tuesdays were my favorite day. I don't remember why-it was just something about the way that u looked like when it was next to e that seemed very friendly. — Maggie Stiefvater

In reality the workings of your governing system are opaque and covert, while hiding in the chattering spotlight of an ostensible transparency, even though the ultimate objective is clear. — Breyten Breytenbach

To be an African is not a choice, it is a condition ... To be an African is not through lack of being integrated in Europe ... neither is it from regret of the crimes perpetrated by "my people" ... No, it is simply the only opening I have for making use of all my sense and capabilities ... The African earth was the first to speak. I have been pronounced once and for all. — Breyten Breytenbach

Of course, I believe most of the older noblemen are actually bringing their sons - only ones eligible for marriage, of course - to dance with me. The consensus seems to be that I would make a pretty good catch.
You aren't going to marry a boring nobleman's boring son.
No?
No, because if one proposes to you, he'll be eaten by morning. Dragons have very healthy appetites.
Draconi don't eat people.
I've been looking for a new hobby. — C.J. Redwine

The goal, I submit, is obvious: subjugating the world (which is barbarian, dangerous, envious and ungrateful) to US power for the sake of America's interests. — Breyten Breytenbach

Rhythm, repetition, making patterns
these are not only important devices for shaping the strange and abstract instrument/object we call a poem or a story, but they are craved as well because of our primordial need for reassurance, the sense of security we get from moving over the known. A mystery doesn't lose power in revisiting. Writing is not just to know, it is also to console. We need to be reminded that we are part of the obscure rhythm of birth and decade. It is the humming that matters. — Breyten Breytenbach